Engage Your Employees With Your Vision

While recently scanning The Dallas Morning News, I found an article that mentioned a report about employee hiring and retention. I know this is an issue on a lot of people’s minds nowadays.

The report was created by Gallup in July 2021 and was titled, The Great Resignation. Two results of the study really made an impression on me:

1. 48% of all employees are actively job searching or watching for other employment opportunities.
2. It takes more than a 20% pay raise to lure most employees from a manager who engages them and next to nothing to poach most disengaged workers.

Workers want to be respected and to know they are valued. The number one reason employees are unhappy are unexpressed expectations.

Here is the good news: based on the observation in the study, the components of your vision serve as your employee recruiting and retention plan.

Use Your Vision To Engage Employees

Use your core values, your Core Focus™, and your 10-Year Target to paint a picture of your vision. Use your vision to tell the story of how working for you is about more than drawing a paycheck. Employees want to be part of something bigger than themselves, so show them how they are impacting others by telling your vision story. Connect them to the vision.

Here are three steps you can take today to use your vision to attract and retain the right people for your organization:

Step 1: Make sure you are bringing your core values to life.

Have every department (including leadership) share stories that demonstrate how someone has done something to live a core value in your weekly meetings. Share those publicly.

Step 2: Find ways to tie your purpose, cause, or passion (your “Why”) to your employees.

• Share customer stories
• Tie the why back to the product
• Make it your rallying cry

Step 3: Communicate with your employees!

Keep expectations clear. Not just your expectations, but also, that you understand their expectations of you.

• Have one on one quarterly conversations with your employees to let them know how they are doing and to ask them how you are doing. Even the best employees never get tired of hearing what a great job they are doing!
• Give feedback quickly. Public recognition of a job well done tells everyone what behaviors you expect.

That’s it! Three simple steps to find and create engaged, empowered employees who will buy into your company vision, stay longer, produce more efficiently and drive more profit to your bottom line.